World Player : Be a World Player

Brand : World Player
Company : Skumars

Brand Analysis Count : # 482

Another brand which has the potential to shake up the readymade market in India- World Player from Skumars is on the national rollout. But the eternal question remains - Can it meet the potential ?

World Player was launched by Skumars in 2010. It took almost one year for this brand to scale up the presence across the states. It is surprising that a national brand like SKumars would take such a long time to scale up the presence of a brand which has so much potential. 

The brand has a huge potential for two reasons :

• It is endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar.
• It is priced very very competitively.

I am not a big fan of celebrity endorsement strategy and I don't believe that all brands endorsed by Sachin have high potential. But for World Player, the presence of Sachin Tendulkar will add tremendous equity . I have a feeling that Sachin will do to World Player what Sunil Gavaskar has done to Dinesh Suitings. 

One of the factors that aid this brand is the pricing. One would expect this brand to be priced anywhere above Rs 1000, but surprisingly  Skumars has decided to price this brand between Rs 100- Rs 500. The brand is targeting youngsters aged 18-35 yrs. This brand is going to be a Mass Prestige brand.

By making pricing affordable, the brand has truly taken the price out of the equation in terms of marketing mix. Now branding and communication will decide the direction for the brand. Skumars should be commented because it didnot outprice the brand eventhough it had a celebrity like Sachin. Skumars has learned that lesson from its brand Tamariind which priced itself out of the market though endorsed by Hrithik Roshan.

By pricing the brand at Rs 100 - 500, the brand has not made itself cheap but affordable. The presence of Sachin Tendulkar will make the brand aspirational . I have seen a hoarding of the brand featuring Sachin and the brand had truly made itself aspirational. 

The brand uses the tagline " Be a World Player " which although a very plain basic tagline, will give creatives lot of space to work with. The tagline connects well with the brand ambassador also.

Skumars recently had lot of success with celebrity driven brand promotion. Be it Belmonte endorsed by SRK or Reid and Taylor endorsed by Big B, The company aims to break into the larger mass market with the cricket maestro Sachin. 

The presence of Sachin will create lot of expectations about the brand interms of the quality and design. The brand have to meet that high expectations which will be an Herculean task at a lower price-point.

The success of the brand will also depend on the brand's advertising strategy ( positioning) , the quality which it can deliver at the lower price points and the distribution. Skumars has a rich history and managing these will not be an issue. 

The only issue is the brand's future after the celebrity. But for now,  I am optimistic that the brand will truly create lot of ripples in the market.

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Tamariind : RIP ( 2001-2002)

Brand : Tamariind
Company : Skumar's
Agency : Percept

Brand Analysis Count : 380

Tamariind was a brand which died inside the TV Tube. This much hyped brand had only one year of existence in the Indian market.

Tamariind was the readymade brand from the textile major S Kumar's Ltd. The company wanted to tap the emerging readymade segment . Tamariind was targeting the middle and upper-middle class segment.

Tamariind had a dream launch. The brand had roped in Hrithik Roahan who was at that time was a phenomenon. I think Tamariind was one of the first textile brands to take him as the brand ambassador.

Riding on the pulling power of Hrithik Roshan, Tamariind had a huge brand recall during the launch. Infact the ads were so effective that large retail chains were stocking this brand within a few days of launch.

How ever, the euphoria did not last long . For some strange reasons, the brand was dead in no time. In 2002, the brand was out of the retail shelves.

Tamariind was positioned as a fashion wear. The clothes were designed by the famed London based designer John Paul Vivian. The brand had the tagline " The Flavour You Wear ". The brand was designed to be a fun,fashionable trendy brand.
Tamariind was also brought in the concept of Total Wardrobe Solutions by providing all type of clothing to the target consumer.


Initially the company planned to use the brand name Cinnamon for its readymade venture. But a retail chain having the same brand name moved to court and restrained SKumars from using Cinnamon. That caused the company to come up with the new brand name -Tamariind.

So here is a brand which had a trendy name, a big star, an international designer and a reputed company ...... and how come such a brand fail that too so fast ?
I personally think that three major factors was the cause of this brand's failure.
Price and
Distribution and
Differentiation.

Price was the critical issue in this case. Tamariind was steeply priced and this repelled many potential customers . Those who bought the brand could not be convinced about the quality which did not justify the steep price.

The brand also tried to focus more on exclusive outlets which again severely restricted its reach among the audience.

Tamariind spend around Rs 12 crore on the launch promotions but could not sustain or convert the initial hype into sales. The brand ambassador Hrithik also faced so many flops after the initial success which inturn affected the brand negatively.

Other than the brand ambassador, Tamariind has nothing to talk about. The product did not have a meaningful differentiation that could justify its high price. When a brand is aiming at the premium class, the product should have some meaningful qualities that will justify the premium. A mere presence of a celebrity will not create a sustainable value for the product .

Print ad source : afaqs
PS : Tamariind brand has two "i" s and is not a spelling mistake.

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